It's such a complicated process. I found out this week that Powell's ordered five copies of my short collection and it's now in their main branch, because of a secondary distributor, fantastic editor/publisher, and bookseller relationships. My second collection was never in any bookstores. It honestly didn't feel like that was a feasible goal, like they would see me as someone trying to get a baby admitted to college.
Getting a short story collection into a major (still "independent") bookstore shouldn't be such a feat. There's an entire section of Amish romances in Barnes & Noble. I write primarily short stories. Ironically, in my "day" job, I also write "Six Gorgeous Kitchen Colors to Inspire a Refresh" with embedded affiliate links. :) I am now caught in new conundrum - I've have had three published collections with growing numbers on each one. So, this has become the get an agent/query the novel year. What I discovered was - in the way I write - my short story collections are linear and related. I've been writing chapters all along BUT that isn't always the case. All novel writers are not short story writers and not all short story writers can write novels.
this is so smart! I am not, in general, a short story person (I share your feeling about wanting to be immersed, though I wouldn't have put it that way!) but I *loved* Julia Ridley Smith's Sex Romp Gone Wrong, which made me both cackle and cry. and I'm currently reading Margo Steines's Brutalities, which is *such* a great essay collection.
I’m thinking of the story collections that have really taken off—say, Her Body and Other Parties, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies—and yes they definitely have a novel-y theme that makes for more straightforward publicizing
Appreciate all this, as I toil away on getting together another (linked) story collection that I might just call a novel. And yeah...I'd love to see a short story collection shelf in a bookstore!
Love this post. I wrote a short story collection for my MFA Thesis (several were published, but I didn't have luck with the collection as a whole). Still, I loved the format so much that one year (before I had a husband, a mortgage, a child), I made a New Years resolution to read one short story per day. Good news: I did it! Bad news: I overdosed - it put me off the genre for many years - after that intense experience, I didn't want short, snappy. I didn't want anything tied up in a bow and I didn't want anything to remain unresolved either. What I wanted was that immersion you reference, to tuck in, sail away and fully escape with a longform story. Now almost two decades later, though I mostly write nonfiction, I've staring tinkering with a few of my old short stories and, fortunately, I can read short stories again, linked or not. I can see the beauty of dipping in and out, catching an author's overall vibe even though the characters and settings might change from one piece to the next. On that note. I recently enjoyed Ronit Plank's "Home is a Made-up Place" and Nicole Haroutunian's "Choose This Now." The work of Amy Barnes is on my list. Thanks for your insights on this topic and others Cassie.
It's such a complicated process. I found out this week that Powell's ordered five copies of my short collection and it's now in their main branch, because of a secondary distributor, fantastic editor/publisher, and bookseller relationships. My second collection was never in any bookstores. It honestly didn't feel like that was a feasible goal, like they would see me as someone trying to get a baby admitted to college.
Getting a short story collection into a major (still "independent") bookstore shouldn't be such a feat. There's an entire section of Amish romances in Barnes & Noble. I write primarily short stories. Ironically, in my "day" job, I also write "Six Gorgeous Kitchen Colors to Inspire a Refresh" with embedded affiliate links. :) I am now caught in new conundrum - I've have had three published collections with growing numbers on each one. So, this has become the get an agent/query the novel year. What I discovered was - in the way I write - my short story collections are linear and related. I've been writing chapters all along BUT that isn't always the case. All novel writers are not short story writers and not all short story writers can write novels.
this is so smart! I am not, in general, a short story person (I share your feeling about wanting to be immersed, though I wouldn't have put it that way!) but I *loved* Julia Ridley Smith's Sex Romp Gone Wrong, which made me both cackle and cry. and I'm currently reading Margo Steines's Brutalities, which is *such* a great essay collection.
I’m thinking of the story collections that have really taken off—say, Her Body and Other Parties, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies—and yes they definitely have a novel-y theme that makes for more straightforward publicizing
Appreciate all this, as I toil away on getting together another (linked) story collection that I might just call a novel. And yeah...I'd love to see a short story collection shelf in a bookstore!
Hi Cassie -- great post, as always! I think you know how much I adore short story collections :-)
Love this post. I wrote a short story collection for my MFA Thesis (several were published, but I didn't have luck with the collection as a whole). Still, I loved the format so much that one year (before I had a husband, a mortgage, a child), I made a New Years resolution to read one short story per day. Good news: I did it! Bad news: I overdosed - it put me off the genre for many years - after that intense experience, I didn't want short, snappy. I didn't want anything tied up in a bow and I didn't want anything to remain unresolved either. What I wanted was that immersion you reference, to tuck in, sail away and fully escape with a longform story. Now almost two decades later, though I mostly write nonfiction, I've staring tinkering with a few of my old short stories and, fortunately, I can read short stories again, linked or not. I can see the beauty of dipping in and out, catching an author's overall vibe even though the characters and settings might change from one piece to the next. On that note. I recently enjoyed Ronit Plank's "Home is a Made-up Place" and Nicole Haroutunian's "Choose This Now." The work of Amy Barnes is on my list. Thanks for your insights on this topic and others Cassie.